‘Culture of complacency’ alleged at LAUSD school where teen died of fentanyl overdose ...Middle East

By BILL HETHERMAN | City News Service

Saying there was a “culture of complacency” in the administration of a Los Angeles high school in 2022, attorneys for the mother of a 15-year-old girl who died of a fentanyl overdose in a campus restroom argue in new court papers that there are triable issues and that the district’s dismissal motion should be denied.

In their previous court papers contending that plaintiff Elena Perez’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit should be tossed out, lawyers for the Los Angeles Unified School District maintained that the death of Melanie Ramos was unforeseeable and that the district was not obligated to monitor Bernstein High School bathroom stalls for drug overconsumption.

But in court papers filed Thursday with Judge Lisa Jaskol in advance of a June 18 hearing, Perez’s attorneys contend that Bernstein High officials knew there was a problem with drug use at the Hollywood campus, but took no action that could have saved Melanie. The coroner’s report stated that Melanie died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl on Sept. 13, 2022.

“Despite the foreseeable conduct of students being able to obtain and consume drugs while at school and the resulting foreseeable medical emergencies, a culture of complacency existed at Bernstein High School where the supervision of students was amorphous and undefined as to responsibilities, including the supervision of specific locations on the campus and the number of times they should be patrolled,” Perez’s attorneys write in their court papers.

Three medical emergencies involving drug use occurred six months before Melanie’s death, the plaintiff’s lawyers further state.

A friend of Melanie’s who was with her when they took the drug had overdose symptoms but survived. Days later, police announced the arrest of a teenage boy who allegedly sold the drug to the two students. Then-Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said the alleged dealer was a student at APEX Academy charter school, which is located on the Bernstein High School campus in the Hollywood area.

In deposition testimony, the second girl, identified only as H.W., said she and Melanie believed the dealer, who she said was named Angel, was selling them Percocet, a pain medication.

“Let me know if you need more,” Angel said after the girls paid him, according to H.W.

H.W. said she and Melanie went to the restroom’s handicapped stall, which had more space than the others.

“We talked a little bit and then we crushed it up and we put it in, like, the lines and we did the pills,” H.W. further said, adding that a cash app card or something similar was used for crushing.

H.W. said she later fell asleep and that when she awakened she saw a listless Melanie and touched her in an attempt to awaken her as well.

“And then I realized, like, a little bit that she was, like, gone,” H.W. said.

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H.W. said she crawled to an electrical outlet to charge her phone and called her mother, who H.W. said was “freaking out on the phone.” She further said she shortly thereafter encountered her stepfather, who had come to the school, and that she told him about Melanie. She said her stepfather picked her up, took her to the restroom and then set her on the floor, but that she doesn’t remember much about what happened in the restroom after that.

H.W. said her stepfather later brought her to his car and asked if she wanted to go to the hospital.

“I said I was fine and I was lying,” according to H.W., who further said her stepfather had her taken to the hospital by ambulance anyway. H.W. said she had never heard of fentanyl before that day.

After Melanie’s death, the district announced that all of its campuses would be supplied with the anti-overdose medication Narcan. Gov. Gavin Newsom subsequently signed into law SB 10, known as Melanie’s Law, requiring public schools to train employees on opioid prevention techniques and response, and to increase awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.

Perez sued the district for negligence and wrongful death in December 2022.

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